


Send Up A Flare

by writetheniteaway



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Force-Sensitive Jyn Erso, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 20:47:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9343367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writetheniteaway/pseuds/writetheniteaway
Summary: Cassian and Jyn have been...something, for some time, but there's still plenty left unsaid. They enter into a routine mission that goes sour, and unexpected help arrives.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My first Rogue One fic. Comments appreciated!

They’re waiting for clearance, crouched low in a back alley. The city, metallic and dirty, covers their noise, they need only not be seen, and she’s fiddling with her crystal. He’d gotten around to asking her about it, and she’d given him the briefest of answers on the matter. It was more than he had expected her to reveal, and he didn’t take that for granted. but he knew so much of her parents, as traitors, as targets. He wanted to know them as she had.

“Do you think they would have liked me?”

It’s an odd question, at an odd time, and her face reveals as much. He scans their surroundings again, part habit part to give her time to change the subject, but eventually he can’t help but return to watching her face.

“I suppose,” She says hesitantly. He wants to know what that means, but has long learned better than to ask. A fraction of his mind flicks back to their first moments together. Kay had accused her of being vague, and the reputation certainly held. A voice comes over the com in her possession, and suddenly there was no more time for oddities. Only battle, guerrilla warfare, routine only it’s unpredictability.

They get separated at some point, an outcome neither of them are ever truly comfortable with. Jyn’s cornered back into the alley despite the orders to push as far forward as they can; she isn’t sure how many exactly are firing but the wall of white armor in her way isn’t parting.

Cassian will leave her behind if it comes down to it, and she’d do the same to him. It wasn’t something that could have ever been formally discussed, because the words are too cruel to protect whatever it is this thing they have going is, but the Rebellion meant too much for either one of them to matter more.

He’s three streets over, trying to get the Empire tank that has been leveling homes in the poorer neighborhoods for sport out of commission. He’d gotten close enough to plant a bomb, but that was his last resort, not first. There were civilians everywhere, and Jyn wouldn’t take kindly to knowing they’d been hurt.

There were days he cursed her for that compassion, because he’d lost his long ago. It made him wonder, again, about Galen and Lyra, would that have understood his way of life, one string of unforgivable deeds after another, in the name of a cause that had raised him to hate?

He shakes the thought from his mind, amazed at how casually his mind had wandered under steady blaster fire. It was comforting, in a contorted way, that he could find the brainspace to multi-task at a time like this, and it was also the exact kind of thinking that would get him killed. He pulls a grenade from his pack, ready to blow the tank and be done with it.

 _She’ll hate you if you do_. A voice that isn’t his own states, so clearly he turns his head in search of it’s owner. _Disable the blaster on the tank, that will buy them time._ Debris falls beside him from a blast that narrowly missed his head, landing hard on his side. He swears furiously, sparing the briefest glance toward his ruined com device. For reasons that remain unfathomable to him, Cassian crouches low and sprints to the other side of the square, positioning himself for a sniper shot at the blaster’s controls.

Jyn ducks as blaster fire ricocheted off the wall behind her, but by some luck, or intervention she doesn’t have the time to question right now, a crack opens across from her. She kicks at it in desperation, hearing the boots of Storm Troopers closing in behind her. The wall gives way and she’s through it without glancing back. She runs a short distance before finding a lattice of junk piled into a wall. She makes the snap decision to climb, the roofs would be more exposed but less crowded, and she could get a sense of her bearings. She could try and find Cassian. From her vantage point she see’s their ship hovering several streets away, and an Imperial fighter closing in behind it. She looks down and sees a second battalion of storm troopers arriving. They must have been recognized as the survivors of Skariff, to warrant such a response. There was no way she could reach the ship, but perhaps it could make it to her before the fighter closed in. She reached for her com and called for Cassian.

He pulls the trigger, and satisfied with his shot dares not linger any longer. He headed North, towards the rendezvous point, running at full speed. Turn around. It’s his subconscious-he’s sure of it-or so he attempts to convince himself. Jyn will be there, she’ll be at the retrieval point, and if he turns around he’ll be left behind.

Jyn tries one final time to reach him, or so she tells herself. Once the ship turns they’ll know she’s there, and there won’t be time to linger. Cassian needs to be beside her when it arrives, or he won’t make it out. She switches channels again, hoping a different frequency is enough for him to hear her.

 _Turn around, Cassian Andor. You’re going the wrong way._ He stops for a moment, and he does not know why. He can’t see the ship, he can’t communicate his position, or receive communication from anyone else. And yet he finds himself not alone. Cassian breathes deeply, spins on his heel, and against all of his better judgment begins to head South.

 _Send up a flare._ Jyn nearly bursts into tears, startled by her mother’s voice echoing so clearly in her mind. She hesitates for a moment, her hands shaking as she reaches into her pack. _Light it._

A burst of green illuminates the streets. The rebel ship makes a hairpin turn, narrowly avoiding the imperial pod on it’s tail. Cassian looks up, and she’s standing above, a few buildings ahead of him. He calls her name, knowing it won’t carry, but to say it all the same.

She turns to the street, grabbing her mother’s crystal by instinct, willing him to realize what she’s done. She hears him call her name, and sees him dodging through throngs of stunned civilians. He finds his way to her as the ship extends it’s hatch, leaving them to jump for it’s open door.

*

They’re well away, mission complete, breath caught and wounds tended. She’s curled sideways on the narrow bench of the cargo hatch, one arm held tight against sore ribs and the other gently, but undoubtedly present, on his shoulder. He sits on the floor in front of the bench, cleaning his weapon, too keyed up to rest but knowing she won’t if he strays too far.

“How did you get back so quickly?” She asks. “I didn’t think you would see the flare.” It isn’t the question she’s asking, what she wants is his forgiveness.

“I was already on my way,” he says, surprising himself with his honesty. “I just, had a feeling.”

They sit quietly for some time before he continues. “Someone told me to turn around. My com was damaged, but I heard them clearly.”

A realization comes to Jyn, a sensation so overwhelming she feels tears form in the corners of her eyes again. He feels her grip on his shoulder tighten, and turns to face her. “Are you alright?”

She fumbles for her necklace, contemplating how best to explain.She pushes herself up so that she’s sitting,pulling his arms around her waists and lacing her fingers with his. She looks at him, intently, as if she isn’t quite sure he’s really there.

“Jyn?” His tone carries concern, but not discomfort. He hasn’t shied away from her inspection.

“They like you,” She says with certainty. “They brought you home.”


End file.
